By Hugh Wilson

The first Sunday fixture this season sees the Saints travel to Merseyside to face a Reds side who will be familiar to the visitors and our tipster is backing a quick start

After signing Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert and Dejan Lovren, Liverpool’s new-look side will look extremely familiar to their visitors on Sunday as they take on Southampton.

The Saints’ squad has been gutted this summer, with a number of top players moving on to other clubs in the Premier League.

As well as players being sold, Southampton have brought in the experienced Ronald Koeman after former manager Mauricio Pochettino moved to Tottenham.

With Dusan Tadic, Graziano Pelle and Shane Long brought into St Mary’s Stadium, the rebuilding process has started but it looks as though they will rely on fringe players from last season to replace their departures for the time being. Paddy Power price them at 8/1 (9.00) to kick off their season with a win.

After a disappointing International Champions Cup final against Manchester United in America, Liverpool ended their pre-season in style, thrashing Borussia Dortmund 4-0 at Anfield. After the anguish of missing out on the Premier League title last season, the Reds, minus Luis Suarez, will look to start this new campaign with a win. Paddy Power price them as heavy favourites at 4/11 (1.36) to do so, with the same firm pricing the draw at 15/4 (4.75).

In this fixture last season, the Saints caused a shock, with a Lovren goal giving them a 1-0 win. With the Croatian now playing for Liverpool, the Saints will have to find a new hero to silence Anfield.

The market heavily favours Liverpool to the point where they look too short to back in the match odds market for most punters, so it’s worth looking elsewhere to find value.

A bet that was hugely successful in Liverpool matches last season was over 1.5 first-half goals. This paid out 11 times in the Reds' 19 home league matches and the price of 5/4 (2.25) with Paddy Power is certainly worth backing again.

This bet landed easily against Borussia Dortmund last week, a game which saw Liverpool explode out of the blocks, and another fast start could see punters more than double their money.